I was 20, and the so-called Vietnam War was just heating up. I did my homework on Vietnam because teachers challenged my opinions. I thought the early antiwar protesters were completely wrong; we had to stop those dirty commies, after all. The newspapers told us so....
Iraq and Iran: Still the Axis of Evil?
I have to wonder what George Bush must be thinking as Iraq's elected Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari readies for his trip next week to Iran. I wonder if he's surprised that the two countries have recently inked a deal to have the Iranian government train the new...
The Unbearable Lightness of Being ‘Condi’
Back in the 1950's comedienne Carol Burnett made her name as a nightclub performer with a song called "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles." Americans had a big laugh over the spectacle of a celebrated entertainer singing a love song about U.S. President...
A Quarter of a Million Dollars Per Settler
The state of Israel which, the last time I checked, was both a foreign and a sovereign nation wants the American taxpayers to cough up $2.2 billion in addition to our regular $3 billion-or-so annual subsidy to pay for the withdrawal from Gaza. Unless the...
India Moves Toward a New Compact with the United States
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh begins his visit to the United States next week amidst indications that India is preparing to shed the last vestiges of its earlier policy of nonalignment and enter into a stronger, indeed unprecedented, "strategic partnership" with...
Iraqi Shadow Seen Over Train Attacks
LONDON - An Iraqi connection was conspicuously missing from the first statements British Prime Minister Tony Blair made on the bomb blasts in London Thursday last week. But new developments suggest a powerful link between the British invasion and occupation of Iraq...
Group Charges Massacre in UN Raid
UNITED NATIONS - A group of U.S.-based human rights and trade union activists is urging the United Nations to investigate the alleged killings of innocent civilians by its peacekeeping troops in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince last week. The activists, who were...
Backtalk, July 15, 2005
London Terror MysteryAwesome piece! I have one significant bone to pick; and that is the absence of analysis of the splits within Israel. These splits are as (in?)significant as those between neocons, paleocons and CIA/State Dept./Clinton/Scowcrofts. I believe that...
In Search of a New Middle Eastern Paradigm
I don't remember how long I have been using Leon Hadar for his insights into the Middle East and the complications engendered by the prolonged and increasingly aggressive American interventions indeed, as Leon puts it, the ongoing efforts to establish the...
Pakistan Analysts Link London Blasts to Afghanistan
KARACHI - Prominent citizens in this country are calling for a deeper understanding of the complex situation that led to the July 7 London bombings as British police confirmed that three of the bombers were of Pakistani descent and probably trained here or in...


